How to Share backups of SharePoint SItes with your customers?

We are runing periodical backups using STSADM.exe. To do it we use a batch file that incldues all the instructions we need to: run the backup and specify the storage location.
The backups we use are "name.dat" and that extension is not supported by default by IIS. That means that a user would not be able to download it.

Why would I need a user to download the .dat file? Because that user is a customer and providing them with a copy of her/his site backup is a good way to decrease risk in case of emergency.

The first idea would be to share within his own SharePoint site a folder where to store the backups. But that is not a good idea because otherwise the next backup will make a backup of the site plus all the backup files inside... and end with a huge file size. It would also overcrowd the SQL Server unnecessarily.

My second idea is I think better, I made an IIS Web site, without SharePoint, and created all the folders (virtual directories from IIS) needed for each one of my customers to have a URL, something like backup.xxx.com/customer/ I made the right permissions of course so only their administrator could access that. Wel having tens of customers is a problem for permissions... (maybe there is a good way to automate the process).

The customer folders are set to let "browse" and "read". That makes the files within the folder visible and downloadable. Now the problem is that IIS does not support ".dat" files by default for security reasons. What you need to do to solve the problem is to create a MIME type:

Associated Extension: .dat
Content Type(MIME): application/octet-stream
Check the instructions.

Now we have a new service to include in our hosting service!

SharePoint Hosting

I have been evaluating many different SharePoint hosting services and I got nothing new out of their service.
I think hosting can be a great thing for independent professionals trying to find an additional way to get some extra cash. Because of that B4Contact, where I work, will be creating very soon an affiliate network that will pay from 50 to 80 EUR per sold hosting agreement.
Our hosting service will be offering very special "value" that I will not talk about today... but I'm sure will make a difference.
If you have some ideas, questions or even you are interested to participate in the affiliate program feel free to let me know.

DNS hosting?

B4Contact is basically a hosting company and because of that DNS is very important for us and specially for our customers.
In order to improve our DNS infrastructure and make some order and methodology I went online to find for alternatives. I found Nettica.
Now I'm one of their customers and I hope they will last for ever!
The online service is really good. We have started a transition of moving and optimizing our DNS records to their service and that will help our customers outside of Slovenia to get a faster answer when looking for Web sites hosted within our infrastructure.
Things I like from their service:

1. The service helps you to avoid mistakes.
2. The online store lets you pay for the service and in a few seconds you are ready to use it.
3. The service includes an API, so that would help if thinking to complement with further development... for example if you wish to add the domain registration to the hosting plan.
4. No problem if you have many many domains.
   

So far so good. Nettica is now part of out long term strategy.
If you would like to know more about our hosting services please feel free to contact me.

Web designers Sharing Point

If you are a web designer or you know some person that runs a business related to Web design then my Blog "Web Designers Sharing Point" can be interesting.

Actually the main idea of that Blog is to start creating a community of professional designers interested in advertising their work and complement it with our experience with SharePoint and our own CMS.

We are looking for the sinergy between B4Contact's team and professionals of Web design. We have customers that need their work and we could add CMS functionality to their designs also improving their business. I think it is a win to win offer.

We are interested in supporting the open source community and we are willing to finance the creation of free CSS templates.

Like a sign of our interest in that community we are offering free hosting for the web site of the designers. Like that we presume that we can be saving some money to freelancers and professionals.